Laparoscopic appendicectomy is normally performed under general Anesthesia which is said to be necessary for tolerance of pneumoperitoneum and muscle relaxation. The efficacy of laparoscopic
appendicectomy under spinal Anesthesia has been documented in few selected studies so far. In view of the above consideration, this clinical study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of laparoscopic
appendicectomy under spinal Anesthesia. Fifty patients underwent laparoscopic appendicectomy under spinal Anesthesia which
were selected randomly. Intra operatively, out of the 50 patients, 4% experienced anxiety and 6% complained of shoulder/neck pain. None of the patients developed intraoperative nausea/vomiting and hypotension. 10% of the patients who underwent under spinal Anesthesia required sedation either due to shoulder/neck pain or anxiety. Out of these,
2 (4%) of the patients required conversion to general Anesthesia. Patients who underwent laparoscopic appendicectomy under spinal anesthesia experienced lesser post-operative pain as compared to those who underwent laparoscopic appendicectomy under
general anesthesia. Our data in this prospective study has confirmed
the efficacy of laparoscopic appendicectomy under spinal Anesthesia. Moreover, it appears that spinal Anesthesia is more effective than the standard general Anesthesia on post-operative pain control during the patient’s hospital stay. From these data, it appears that spinal Anesthesia is a promising method of Anesthesia for laparoscopic procedures, and with proper refinements, it could potentially evolve as
the new gold standard Anesthetic approach for laparoscopic appendicectomy in healthy patients.